BT 2000 Annual Report Download - page 10

Years ended 31 March
Turnover summary -- ongoing activities
1996(a)
£m
1997(a)
£m
1998(a)
£m
1999(a)
£m
2000
£m
Fixed-network calls 6,037 5,919 5,788 6,026 5,908
Exchange lines 2,907 3,043 3,190 3,351 3,526
Mobile communications 856 949 1,089 1,400 2,170
Receipts from other operators 1,133 1,094 1,249 1,417 1,974
Private services 1,074 1,131 1,131 1,140 1,135
Customer premises equipment supply 946 914 896 870 847
Yellow Pages and other directories 408 438 466 491 642
Other sales and services 1,085 1,447 1,831 2,258 2,513
Group turnover 14,446 14,935 15,640 16,953 18,715
Share of associates' and joint ventures' ongoing turnover (b) 24 86 399 1,270 3,364
Trading between group and principal joint venture ± ± ± ± (176)
Total turnover ± ongoing activities 14,470 15,021 16,039 18,223 21,903
(a) Figures for the 1996 to 1999 ®nancial years have been restated to conform with the method of classi®cation used in the 2000 ®nancial year.
(b) Excludes associates and joint ventures no longer part of the group.
operator Esat Digifone. We also acquired directly a 1%
bene¢cial interest in Esat Digifone.
&In April 2000, we announced we had agreed to take
sole control of Telfort, our Dutch joint venture, by
acquiring the 50% we did not already own, for
»1.16 billion (NLG 4.2 billion). Telfort provides ¢xed
and mobile services in the Netherlands to businesses
and consumers.
Our strategy outside the UK is to work with local partners
and in broader alliances, such as Concert, our global joint
venture with AT&T which was launched during the 2000
¢nancial year. The proportion of our total turnover arising
from our activities outside the UK continues to increase. In
the 2000 ¢nancial year, it was around 18%, compared with
around 10% in the previous ¢nancial year.
International boundaries are becoming less signi¢cant
as the use of new communications technologies spreads.
Accordingly, following a comprehensive strategic review of
the factors driving the industry, we announced, on 13 April
2000, a restructuring of the company.
We will separate the UK ¢xed-network business into
two divisions ^ wholesale and retail ^ and regroup our
other assets in the UK, Europe and elsewhere by market
sector rather than geography to form four potentially
high-growth global businesses:
&Ignite a broadband internet protocol (IP) business;
&BTopenworld a mass-market internet business;
&BT Wireless an international mobile business; and
&Yell an international directories and
e-commerce business.
The objective of the restructuring is to improve BT's
position in a rapidly changing marketplace, with a sound
balance between management focus, the ability to capture
cross-business synergies and the £exibility to meet
future needs.
It is planned that the four new businesses will start
operating in their new form in summer 2000. The
separation and determination of the detailed structure of
the UK wholesale and retail businesses is expected to take
place later this year.
The principal components of the group's turnover
during each of the last ¢ve ¢nancial years, together with
the growing signi¢cance of the proportionate share of its
ventures' turnover, are shown in the table below.
BT in the UK
The new structure
The separation of the UK ¢xed-network business into
wholesale and retail should facilitate more focused
management. This move anticipates the continued
expansion of a competitive communications marketplace.
The wholesale business will comprise the UK copper
access network, the core circuit switched network and local
exchanges. It will use this comprehensive UK asset base to
supply services to other telecoms operators and service
providers as well as BT's own retail operation. Our IP
network in the UK will be operated by Ignite (see below).
The retail business will provide account-managed and
packaged solutions, allowing business and residential
customers to bene¢t from the full range of BT products,
Annual report and Form 20-F 09